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Explainers

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How Much Should You Pay for Org Design & Development?

Org Design services may seem costly now, but without a focus on how your teams work best together, the results may ultimately be far more expensive. Moreover, now is an opportunity to hone OD as a competitive advantage in your market while your competitors are unaware of the opportunities and still question the returns.

The Limits of Measuring Engagement

Since Gallup started tracking engagement in 2000 with its famous 12-question survey, we’ve been through two recessions and recoveries, a dot-com bubble (and might be in a second), the proliferation of smartphones and social media… And yet for 14 of those 16 years, employee engagement has been flat, with “engaged employees” hovering between 28% to 32% of the workforce.

Short and Frequent: How to Communicate Change to Employees

How do you keep people moving forward with change, week after week? And while it’s one thing to acknowledge the fact that organizations must constantly change, how do you get the people actually doing the work comfortable with constant change? We usually have a step-by-step guide for you, but today we’re giving you one simple rule: think dolphins, not whales.

Use Checklists to Guide New Team Habits

Adopting new behaviors can be challenging, but a simple thing like a checklist can help you transform a need for change into a concrete, repeatable new behavior.

How to Disagree with Your Boss

If you disagree with your boss, don’t panic, and don’t be too hasty. Calmly and respectfully disagree with them in order to open up a productive discussion.

Pause Before You Draw that New Org Chart

Every leader faces a moment where the way you organize your teams feels either like your biggest barrier or biggest opportunity. Before you rush into drawing new boxes, reflect on how the way you divide people and resources impacts your strategy.

How to Motivate Your Teams With Intrinsic Rewards

What would you do if you had to convince people to work with you, without getting a paycheck? Yes, explaining purpose—how their work contributes to the bigger picture—is a good start, but it may not be enough. Individuals respond differently to different forms of motivation, and part of your role as leader is to figure out the right mix for your team.

How to Improve Your Company’s Employee Retention Rate

In order to improve employee retention, you must put employee engagement at the center of everything you do. Get HR and leadership on board to reprioritize employee happiness to the top of the company’s business goals.

HR is Often the Least Engaged Team in the Building, Why?

Spotify is known for being a progressive company that treats their people right—we’ve even covered some of their practices, from how they find talent to how they manage career progression. But news is leaking out that the people who are arguably in charge of the great work culture at Spotify are, in fact, not happy about the environment at all.

Innovation Defined: The Differences Between Optimizing, Diffusing, & Disrupting

“Innovation” is a broad term for different activities, and confusion can lead to under-performance.

How to Delegate Decision Making

Avoid unnecessary escalation by choosing the right people to be involved in decisions, and give them the tools and authority to make the call.

Managing Up Without Sucking Up

In order to do your job effectively, you must develop a healthy working relationship with your manager, being clear about expectations and delivering consistent results.

Addressing National Tragedies at Work

Workplaces aren’t sealed off from the cultures around them and the events that shape those cultures. More and more, your teams are coming to work and looking to each other to find community and support.

Six Questions to Ask before Opening an Innovation Outpost

Gather your leadership team together and run a diagnostic test of your company’s innovation goals and needs before establishing an innovation outpost.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed by Real-Time Data

Using data to guide the iterative process is crucial to the survival of any company. Know how to separate the signals from the noise to avoid burdening your team.

How to Unplug from Work at Night

Set up a culture of self-care on your team, inside and outside of the office. With sleep as an important part of work performance, discuss with your team how to minimize after-hours emails and fire drills so people can do their best work the following day.

How to Encourage an Abundant Mindset

Schedule short, daily actions with your team to shift their mode of thinking from a scarce, limiting mindset to a more open and positive paradigm.

Workplace Survival: Practical Ways to Reduce Stress

Stress management as a team also improves workplace cultures overall. Supporting and encouraging coworkers lays the foundation for better communication, collaboration, and self-awareness.

Avoid the Mighty Mouse Trap as a New Leader

When people step into a new leadership role—especially for the first time—their instinct is to jump in and start doing things right away. Frank Crowson, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Guitar Center, calls this “Mighty Mouse Syndrome”: you leap into action, proclaiming “Here I come to save the day!”

Why Listening Is So Important to Leaders—and How You Can Improve

Being a good listener is extremely important as a leader. Listening helps you get energized about work, identify problems more quickly, and make the best decisions based on the thoughts and feelings of your team. Practice basic techniques to make sure you’re getting the most out of meetings with the rest of your team.